Search This Blog

Edith's Streets

This blog records notes about London (and Greater London) streets - what the buildings are, what the background is. These pages have been compiled over many years and from many sources - its not intended to copy from other people's work.Each post represents a square on the Ordnance Survey grid -and the vast majority of information is culled from map based source material - Ordnance Survey, A/Z, etc.

On some inner city squares only a quarter of each square is done because of the volume of material involved

Please add your comments and corrections - I am sure there are lots of mistakes - and my idea is to build up a correct record interactively

Red- it is (hopefully) there nowBlue - its interesting but its goneNo colour, same as the text - don't know. needs to be verified

Saturday, 26 January 2013

River Brent. Brentford

River Brent

The Brent flows south eastwards as part of
the Grand Union Canal, and diverges into a number of channels and docks as it
approaches the Thames
TQ 17802 77348

This square covers an important part of Brentford where the Brent and the Grand Union Canal arrive at Brunel's Brentford Dock. This was an area with an enormous amount of industry and activity. As with the rest of Brentford there were also an enormous number of pubs. Some of the old part of the town have buildings relating to when this was major town in Middlesex, and also to the Civil War battle that was fought in these streets.

Modern housing in an old court. It was named
for, and the site of the Albany C Chapel opened 1829 by Independent
Congregationalists, and was open intermittently through the 19th.By the 1890s it was a print works

Albany Road

Before the 19th this road was
called Back Lane. It has a few working-class terraces of the 1880s that escaped the
post-war clearance. The area was
previously market gardens

17 Albany Arms. This pub dates from the
mid-19th but was rebuilt in 1901. On the pediment above the
entrance, is the monogram 'RBC' and the date 1900. This stands for the Royal
Brewery Co. – the local Brentford brewery.

34 Tempori Parendum. A lawyer

Pipe
an angled water pipe at the kerb carried a plaque reading "J. Bartle &
Co. W London" and was a supply point for water carts.

Alexandra House 1930s Brentford Health
Centre. This now caters to a range of community organisations. Brentford Health
Centre which also had a with juvenile employment bureau to rear. Built in
1937-8 by L. A. Cooper and K. P. Goble, borough engineer and architectural
assistant to Brentford and Chiswick Metropolitan Borough. It is in brick with a
flat roof. It has a tower which had in it the caretaker's flat

Brentford County Court. Built 1963 as a
purpose built Court. It had previously operated in the Vestry Hall. The
entrance is in this side road to reduce traffic congestion

Brentford
Monument. This is now outside the County Court. It records important episodes
in Brentford history. Names recorded on it include Julius Caesar, Offa King of
Mercia, Edmund Ironside, Cnut and King Charles I. The Monument has a chequered
history, starting as part of the 1824 Brentford Bridge and reaching its present
location, the fourth in Brentford, in 1992. In one of its moves the top and
bottom became misaligned

Augustus
Close

The road follows the line of the Great
Western railway to Southall, joining it just south of the church and the
churchyard. The line of the embankment on which it ran can be seen as the point
at which the rail line joins the road which was cut through from the High
Street between the church and the Six Bells in the mid-1960s.This consisted partly of Church Alley and of
residential and commercial properties. The road continues into the Dock area
and is now surrounded by housing built under the Greater London Council and
subsequently. igHigh

Bridge
over the Brent/Grand Union Canal. This
bridge was originally built by the Great Western and Brentford Railway
Company to carry their Southall to Brentford Dock line into the dock area and
was one of the original girder bridges. It has three wrought iron plate girders
which were characteristic of Isambard Brunel.Some parts of it were replaced in the early 20th and the
current road is supported by concrete slabs.

2 Footbridges.
These cross the Grand Union Canal.

2
Built as the Estate Supervisors House, originally the Head Porter's House, but now rented as residential.

Boston
Manor Road

Twenty One West. This is the site of Park Baptist
Chapel was on the corner the Great West Road – but this had originally been
Boston Park Road. The chapel had begun in 1799 at Hammersmith. In 1855 the Park
Chapel, classrooms were added in 1869 but replaced in 1936 by a hall, The
chapel was bombed in the Second World War and reopened in 1950, In 1994 it
merged with Brentford United Reformed Church to form Brentford Free Church. The site now has this
mega office block on it.

Rail
Bridge

Brentford
Hospital. In 1892 Edward Clitherow, owner of Boston Manor, leased Marlborough
House, at 24-26 The Butts for use as a hospital.The Brentford Dispensary, of 1818, moved
there and it was called the Brentford Dispensary, Cottage Hospital and Nurses'
Home.The two houses, built around 1690,
have six in-patient beds and accommodation for nurses. As the area expanded a
larger area was needed and Gale’s Orchard, in Boston Manor Road, was bought
purchased and it opened in 1928. It was much larger and each bed had a wireless
installation.In the Second World War
the Hospital joined the Emergency Medical Scheme with 33 beds.It joined the NHS in 1948.It closed in 1977 and the building became an
old people's home. This was closed in 1993 and the building demolished.The site now has the Brentford Health Centre,
which opened in 1996, and the Brentford Lodge Day Hospital, a mental assessment
and respite care centre.The original
foundation stone is in the wall of the Health Centre.

The
Brentford Health Centre.

The
Brentford Lodge Day Centre

5
Brentford School for Girls. Thus began as The
Brentford British School, and a school here began in 1834. This was financed by The Rothschild
Family and known as The Rothschild School in 1912. It was on the site of the
Health Centre. The current building has been used since 1930 and in 1968 the
school split and the boys were moved elsewhere.

Brentford
Free Church.A congregation had existing in Brentford
from 1672. This Congregational chapel opened in 1783. They merged with the
Presbyterians in 1972 to form Brentford United Reformed church and in 1994 with
Park Baptist Church

Brentford
Public Library, This was opened personally by Andrew Carnegie in 1904. It has or
had a set of cast iron radiators.It was
designed by T H Nowell Parr, in yellow brick. Over the door are the date and
benefactor's name and the Borough coat of arms. In the old newspaper reading
room is a bronze portrait of Carnegie

19
King's Arms. Built in 1840 to
resemble a coaching inn, and extended in the 1920's

Inverness
Social Club. Inverness Lodge. This is a large house with a 19th
stucco front – but it may be an older house behind this. It is used as a
meeting room and club and may have been a private asylum in the 19th.

War
memorials. The Brentford War memorial is
a tall stone structure with carvings of a wreath. The main inscription is on
the front with that to Sgt, Robert Spall V.C. Other names are carved on the
sides of the memorial. There is also a memorial to those killed in two world
wars who were staff members of the Gas Light and Coke Company locally and, more
recently, a West Brentford memorial moved here from St. Lawrence churchyard

Braemar
Road

Griffin Park - Brentford Football Club.
Founded in 1889 by members of the rowing club who wanted something to do in the
winter and voted for soccer rather than rugby. They have been based here since
1904. The main stand was built in the 1927/28 season. They are now a
professional club.

Brent Way

The road winds round from the Railway Bridge
at The Ham to join Catherine Wheel Alley.Its route cannot easily be traced on maps before the Second World War.Part was once called Plough Yard

Twickenham Plating Group is just visible. Plating for electronics,
based in Poole and Twickenham. They moved into the Band Parchment building. As Isleworth Plating & Polishing Ltd. they occupied
stabling once part of the King's Arms Pub. Tethering rings survived inside

Band's Parchment Works. James Band, from
Bermondsey tannery background established a parchment making business in
Brentford and moved in 1910 to Plough Yard. Closed 1981 when they were one of only two producers of
parchment in Britain.

Boars Head Business Park

The Strand Glass Co., renamed Strand Glass
fibre in 1966, moved to the Brentway trading estate in 1968. Bradbury Grocer's Warehouse. 1870 in red brick with a date plaque for 1891. This stretched back from High Street premises and included stables, since demolished.

Brent Backwater

This flows in a loop from south of the over
ground railway bridge over the Brent/Grand Union to rejoin the river/canal
south of Brent Locks.It thus forms an
island reached by a concrete bridge from the High Street – this is Tallow Road.

Brentford Dock

Brentford Dock was opened in 1859 and used
for interchange between the Thames and Great Western Railway.The Engineer was Isambard Brunel with William
Haskoll as his deputy. It was built in a Brent river delta area of marshy land
used for osiers, called Lotts meadow on an area which was essentially a
peninsula between two mouths of the Brent. It was used as an import/export dock
and in the 19th handled 10% of national trade. It initially covered thirteen
acres and had two miles of internal railway line designed to integrate the
railway and dock.The water area ran
from the river to a covered dock surrounded by rail lines. The Dock closed in 1964 and was redeveloped with flats
houses and a marina by the Greater London Council and Landscaped by Peter Barefoot.

Dock basin. This could take boats of up to
30c tons. It has also been partly closed off and filled in

Dock Railway.The Great Western, Brentford and Thames
Junction Railway met the Great Western at Southall and ran south to pick up on
Thames barge traffic.

Dock entrance to the river. Originally designed
by Brunel. It had a large single leaf tidal gate. It would originally have been
controlled by a lock gateman. It has been replaced by a lock with a single gate
at each end. A section of the original top beam has been preserved and stands alongside
used as a planter. Also preserved is the winding mechanism – artistically arranged
nearby

Hydraulic
Engine House Base – near the Dock Entrance, beyond the lock-keeper's building,
is the base of a building which housed an engine providing hydraulic power for
the dock and using old locomotive boilers. There was also an accumulator
tower.The area was for a while a
children’s playground, later replaced with flower beds.

Shipping
Sheds. Brunel’s wooden shipping shed was burnt down in 1920 and replaced in
steel.It had six hydraulic cranes moved
here from Bulls Bridge in 1859. The shed was demolished and the flats either
side of Justin Close cover some of its area

Local
Goods shed. Designed by Brunel and closed in 1930. This was to the north east
of the main Dock.

Warehouse
1 built 1859 designed by Brunel. Extended 1910. This was roughly on the area
occupied now by Numa Court

Warehouse
2. Used for grain. Built 1901 in reinforced concrete – the second such
warehouse to use this material. This was roughly on the area occupied now by
Marcus Court.

Warehouse
3 used for Lysate tinplate and galvanised sheeting from Newport and Bristol,
built 1908. Built in reinforced concrete. Ground floor used for storage. This
was roughly on the area occupied now by the southerly part of Marcus Court

Warehouse
4. Built 1927. Footings in use as a
barbecue area. The embankment to it still there and a concrete trough marking
the route of riverside transverse cranes. This was roughly on the area occupied
now a path and trees.

Warehouse
5 – ground floor used for storage and as a workshop. This was roughly on the
area occupied now by a wharf side structure

Warehouse
6. Export Traffic Shed. Called the Morris Shed and used for exporting Morris
Cars from Cowley. This was roughly on the area occupied now by Nero Court

Riverside
– a 900 foot quayside was built in 1918 which could be used by sea going boats.
It had a 6 ton steam crane later replaced, by electric ones. This was roughly
on the area occupied now by the backs of houses which front onto Augustus
Close.

Brockshot Close

Built on the site of sidings for the London
& South Western Railway to the east of Brentford Station. A Brockshot Road
once also ran to the north and parallel

Brook Road North

Trading Estate on the east side, Site of
rail sidings and saw mills

Brook Road South

The Griffin pub. Fuller brewery – ‘solid old
school boozer’

Catherine
Wheel Road

This
was known as Catherine Wheel Yard and is an alley way going to the Canal and
Dock area.The Catherine Wheel,
inevitably, was a pub

47 Brewery Tap.The current pub building dates from 1928. It
was originally
the tap of the William Gomm Brewery, which was acquired by Fuller's in 1908 and
subsequently closed. A previous pub of this name stood on the High Street. .

Polco
Products was founded in 1956 at Covent Garden to make motor car accessories,
particularly vacuum cleaners. The firm moved to the Brent works in 1972

Brentford
Soap Co. opened by former employees of Thames Soap works in the old Beehive
Brewery building. Closed in 1964. Toilet and Shaving Soaps for
the trade, and Laundry and Industrial Soaps of every description.

Grand
Junction Brewery. The Grand Junction brewery, ran from 1826 by James Crooks,
and by 1866 George Gearey.

Beehive
Brewery. This began as a brewery in the back of the Beehive pub – on a
different site to the current pub. They took over the Grand Junction Brewery. It had
an artesian well 462 feet deep, a 3 storey malt house, a cooperage and stables
on site. The brothers sold the brewery
and their 34 licensed premises to Fullers Brewery

Marvin
architectural. Canal house

Clifden Road

Baths opened in 1896 and designed By Nowell
Parr, District Surveyor. The entrance and front is in red brick but otherwise it is in stock
brick. Above the windows is written “public baths”. The pool roof has glass inserts
and at the back is a boiler house with a square chimney. On one side is a block
thought to be the old council committee rooms. Inside are original the original
doors with leaded coloured glass to the women’s slipper baths, superintendent’s
office, and a committee room with an original fireplace). The Pool is extended
at the deep end through the original rear wall broken through, and there is an original
wooden gallery. The men’s slipper bath now the gymnasium. There is an old
laundry. Holes in the soft brickwork were
gouged by swimmers queuing here with the coinage of a former era. To be
converted for housing.

Methodist Church. There have been Methodists
in Brentford since the 18th and Wesley visited a group here. They
met in an old Presbyterian chapel from 1783, and then a new meeting house from
1811. This was replaced by a Gothic building at the corner of Windmill Road in
1890 and this was bombed but restored in 1951In 1964 the current Church, was built on part of the old church site and
stained windows have been reused from the previous building.

School
Lodge at entrance to Brentford School for Girls.

Commerce
Road

The
road runs parallel to the defunct Brentford/Southall railway line. It was an
area of works and there remain three striking art deco factories. The area
seems to be in process of being redeveloped and renamed Brentford Dock
West.On the Kingston Zodiac the road
represents one of Capricorn’s hind legs – they comment that, he is an industrious
animal..

Holiday
Inn. Hotel. Appears to be on the site of what was the Toffee Factory.

Toffee
Works. This is said to be Walters Palm,
whose factory was in Acton by the 1960s

Rock
Works. Ranton & Co. moved here from Cricklewood in the 1930s. They made
Bakelite electrical accessories.

The Mint House.ouHouElizabeth
Shaw, chocolate factory. The firm had been founded in 1937 by Elizabeth and Patrick
Joyce. Elizabeth started to produce Mint Crisps to sell in her brother-in-law’s
shop. In 1938 they worked from a kitchen in Teddington; and in 1939 to Commerce
Road Brentford staying there until 1953

Falcon
Pipes. These are tobacco pipes made with an aluminium stem. This was an
American invention brought to England and made in Brentford from 1963. Here
they launched their Brentford pipe.

British
Road Services Depot. This may have previously been the depot of Universal
Haulage Co., Ltd, on a site which lies between two railway lines and the canal.
Nationalised as British Road Services and later denationalised.It may be that this is now the Metroline bus
depot site which they have used, as part of Armchair, since 1990.Grand Junction Wharf. Fellows, Clayton and Morton Dock. Swingbridge remains.

Dock
Road

Until
the 1960s this pathway was the only access to Brentford dock. It is paved
partly with fanned granite setts and was edged on the left with Great Western Railway
broad gauge rail sections and a GWR fire hydrant plate in the road

Beacon Works. Pharos Marine made buoys and
lighthouse equipment but have now left Brentford.The yard behind their premises ran down the
east side of the road and navigation lights and foghorns were sometimes under
test there. A chimney stands alongside the road.

Pharos Marine
Yard – was once called Montgomery Wharf, and had been a timber yard owned by
the Montgomery family. It was later the Motor Repair Workshops of the Brentford
Gas Works (North Thames Gas Board from 1949) until it closed in 1976,

Wooden
boundary fence along the Pharos Marine site and Dock Road. The bottom has a row
of broad-gauge rails laid on edge facing the road. The fence uprights are reinforced
on the inside by more of them. Broad gauge were not used here after 1876 and
they must date from then.

Underwood Hay and Straw building stood on
the west side of the road. Painted on it was UNDERWOOD’S HAY AND STRAW DEPOT.
This was red brick with three gables and included part of the garden wall of the house. kjUnderwood had worked at Brentford Docks Station, and then set up in business.
In the early 20th the family firm had six branch offices and depots in London alone.

Industrial Blowers Ltd was at one time on
the old Hay & Straw Depot before moving to Hanwell.

Town
Wharf – neglected wharf area off Dock Road and fronting on the spillway loop of
the Brent which diverts around Thames Wharf. Used as barge stands for Vokins lighterage and
tug owners. With barge beds and a small covered dock

Weir can run in either direction according
to the river flow and the state of the tide. The spillway re-joins the main
channel beyond the boatyards on the far side of Dock Road

MSO
Marine on the site ofE.C.Jones'
boatyard. They say they have two dry docks and wet docks plus
a tidal grid and yard space with under cover storage

Footbridge.
The bridge passes over the overflow channel for the canal on the line of the
River Brent before it goes over lock area. In the 1950s a new bridge was
built over the road and a second lock was built beneath it. It crosses over the dock and then floodgates. Called Dr.
Johnson Lock after Dr.Robert Johnson once landowner who was the proprietor of a
starch mill in Catherine Wheel Yard in the 18th century

Durham Wharf Drive

Road running to flats alongside Brentford
Lock

Glenhurst Road

26 Middlesex House. Council offices now
converted to housing

Grand Junction Canal

The canal used the river Brent for the three
miles from Brent to Hanwell and opened to Uxbridge in 1794 and the Paddington
Arm built in 1820. The Grand Junction Canal Company became part of the Grand
Union Canal Company in 1929 and nationalised in 1948.The final commercial traffic in the early
1980s was end of the lime-shipments to Rose's in Hemel Hempstead.

Thames
Lock. This improved navigation from the Thames to the next lock at Brentford,
originally the first lock on the system. Thames Locks were doubled and
mechanised in 1962.

Footbridge. This footbridge, which crosses
the lock weir, is by Westwood Baillie & Co, shipbuilders and makers of
portable iron building frames.

A
parish boundary marker between Old and New Brentford is near Thames Locks

Brentford
Gut At the second bridge on Dock Road links the River Thames with the Grand
Union Canal at Thames Locks to the right

Gauging
Locks. The First lock from the High Street on the Grand Junction Canal is the
gauging lock at the entrance to Brentford Depot. The locks were mechanised in
1962. The gauging locks, plus their spillway, are on a straight cut section.
The River Brent here point loops behind Brentford Depot on the other of the
canal. The Brent backwater flows from under a 1930's concrete bridge with a
weir used to regulate the flow of water down the Brent, the two channels
diverging just beyond the Depot.

Lockkeeper’s
cottage. Rebuilt in 1962

Clocking
in office

Toll
office. The small building with the chimney and slate roof on the lock-side is a toll office,
dating from 1911. It had its measuring gauge and high office desk. Traffic
entering the canal here paid tolls according to the type and weight of cargo.

Workhouse
Dock in the 18th there was a workhouse at the west end of the dock
site.

Great West Road

The
road was opened in 1925 and widened m 1986. In the 1920s it was built as
an alternative to congested Brentford High Street though a rural area. The end
of the road is now overshadowed by the M 4 flyover.

Glaxo Smith Kline. This is on the Trico and
Maclean’s sites. Glaxo are a major international pharmaceuticals company with a
strong British base. This is their headquarters. Built by RHWL Architects in
2001. In the door is a world map and windscreen wipers, corrugated doorways
inside.

980 Trico HouseWindscreen Wiper factory opened in 1928 and moved to Wales in
1992.It was a low range with Egyptian
door surrounds. Trico Folberth was an American company who established a
factory in Cricklewood in 1928. In front of Trico House was a neon sign of a
world map swept by a windscreen wiper. The
adjacent factory of Thompson & Norris was taken over in the 1950s. The
buildings were demolished in order to be a UK headquarters for Samsung. The Asian economic crisis of the late 1990s meant
that this did not happen,

Thompson & Norris making corrugated
cases in a building which had a plain front added by Robert Sharp in the late
1920s.This had a corrugated design on
doorways.They moved to Park Royal in
the 1950s.

MacLean’s. This was built in 1932 by F.E.Simpkins
for the toothpaste company, with a rendered facade and stepped art deco
pavilions and parapets.MacLean’s had
been founded in 1919 in Paddington by Alexander Maclean to make toiletries for
chemists.They opened here as a result
of their successful anti acid powders. Continuing success meant that they
expanded to other sites. They became part of the Beecham group in 1938.

Rank Audio-visual, took over the MacLean’s former factory
buildings in order to central their marketing and service divisions. The
factory was demolished early in 1997 after standing empty after Rank left the
site in the mid-1980s.

Sperry
Gyroscope Company Limited. The factory
opened in 1931. They made compasses gyrostabilisers and similar equipment for aircraft
and ships. The factory was designed by F.W.Courtney Constantine and F.W. Moore.
It has a heating system which relied on solar power. Searchlights were tested
on the roof. Air vents between ground and first floors were designed to
resemble stylised gyroscopes. In the Second World War the factory was extended
and secret work undertaken for Vickers

Great
West Plaza. This is now centered on Riverbank Way plus Mercury Communications in a late 1980s stretch of
speculative offices. It occupies buildings with domestic style roofs above blue
trimmed glazing;

Janzen Knitting
Mills factory opened in 1931 with a factory
designed by Constantine and Vernon. This was an American company making
swimwear – with the well known logo of the young lady diving.They moved to Barnstable in the 1960s. The
factory was replaced by an office tower and 1966 their first tenants were
Siemens and Honeywell computers. Groupe Bulle tower on the Janzen site. This is
now Great West House providing office accommodation for a variety of companies

1000
Boston Park Plaza. The Mille. This was built
in the 1960’s and refurbished in 1985/1986, and has office accommodation over a
thirteen floors. It was originally built by construction company Turiff as their
headquarters.

Half Acre

An old field name and the Half Acre runs north
from the High Street. Until the 19th
this was the site of Ronald's Nursery, a supplier to Kew gardens of botanical
garden items.

Police
station and County Court. This had operated in the Vestry Hall, built 1899,
from 1907 which stood here until the 1960’s

St. Paul’s Old
School. The Brentford Nursery. This seems
to have been connected to Lawrence’s church and to have been a girls school

37 Half-Acre House, Brentford FC Community
Sports Trust

Queens Hall. This was built in 1911, as a theatre, a skating rink and
became the Queen’s Hall Cinema in -1912. It closed on in 1957 and was demolished

High
Street

This busy route was bypassed by the Great
West Road in 1925. Over the years it has contained a phenomenal number of pubs
– of which only a tiny fraction are listed here. Brentford historians maintain
an interesting web site detailing the history of every building and site in the
road.

Brentford
Bridge. This is an ancient crossing of the River on the road between London and
the West Country. The present bridge was built in 1824 by Robert Sibley and widened in 1825 and
1909 and improved in 1994-5. In 1893 the Grand Junction Water Company added iron structures to carry water pipes accross it. It once carried granite drums supporting a lamp
which were later used for the Brentford monument which was at one time part of
the bridge.

55 Brentford Fire Station. The Old Fire Station
is a red brick building by Nowell Parr, District Surveyor, faced with Doulton
tiles. It was completed in 1897, extended in 1912 and in use until 1965. It was
restored to use as offices in 1985 but is now in use as a restaurant.

56-57
Ferry Quays courtyard

60 18th houses with three bays which
once had its own wharf. It was used as the Police
Station in 1840 -1869, with six cells, which remain inside.It was later used as a dairy.

66
Fat Boys Thai restaurant. This was previously the Rising Sun pub which had
closed in 1964 and been used as a shop

69-76
Heidelberg.Printing machinery
distributors

77-78 Beacon Works Pharos Marine made buoys
and lighthouse equipment. The company left Brentford in December 1998. Moved to
an industrial estate in Hounslow.

80, late
18th, with a porch with carvings of urns and garlands. Used as offices and
earlier used as industrial premises

128 Magpie and Crown. Mock-Tudor pub, set
back with an outside drinking area.

152-
158 Canal Court built in the late 1980s

208
Castle Hotel. This was impressive with large stables. In the 19th it was a main
stop for coaches westbound out of London. It included a theatre and dance hall
and was much used by local clubs and societies. Closed in 1936

227
Beehive Pub. Rebuilt in 1907 when Half Acre was widened because of the need for
access for the trams. A small corner pub by architects Nowell Parr and A.E.
Kates, It has art nouveau glass, and Parr's tiles, in mottled slate blue and coloured Doultonware. Inside is an art nouveau grate. The sign has a straw bee hive.

275 Coronet Cinema. This opened as The
Brentford Cinema in 1912 and was re-named Electric Cinema soon after. By 1926 it was the Coronet Cinema, and was closed 1930, never having
been equipped for talkies. It became a garage
in and was being used by the Press Plating Co. in 1964

St. Lawrence church. The oldest building in
Brentford. Its site could be that of a church and churchyard built in 1163. The
church had close connections with the Manor of Boston, The original section of the
Church is the Tower built in the 15th in Kentish ragstone. The nave dates from
1764 and is in stock brick by Thomas Hardwick. The unique interior wooden
columns date from 1889. In 1760- 1773 the curate was radical John Horne Tooke,
and at that time the Church was rebuilt. There is a monument to William Ewin by
Flaxman. It ceased to be used in 1969 and is closed.

Churchyard.
Derelict and overgrown walled churchyard is fenced off from public access. Buried
here are members of the Clitherow family who owned Boston Manor from 1670-1924.
The war memorial has now been moved to the library gardens.

St Lawrence church wall - plaque about pure
water at ground level. The Grand Junction Water Company provided a water
fountain on the High Street side of St Lawrence's churchyard in 1862. This promised
of 'pure filtered' water to the former
drinking fountain above.

Morrison’s supermarket. Which was called
International when it first opened, then Gateway and Somerfield

148
Six Bells.Called after the six bells in
the church which were rung for special events

Magistrates Court. This is on the site¬ of the market
place, and it was built in the 19th by a Town Hall and Market Company which had
been formed to develop the area. It was used for magistrates and county courts,
and also let social gatherings. Brentford’s first library was housed here and
it was where the Guardians met.In 1891,
Middlesex County Council bought it and in 1929 it was rebuilt -. It is faced in stone with
‘Beaux-Arts’ plus a steep roof topped with am 18th clock. The County Court moved out in
1963. At the back are the remains of the stock brick and stucco Brentford Town Hall and Police
Court built 1850 by F. Byass

Wilson & Kyle Ltd., former manufacturers
of fuel injection systems for marine engines, ceased operations in Brentford
and closed down in March 1998. Their premises occupied most of the west side of
the road. They were an old-established family firm of marine engineers.

Johnson’s Island

This is a tiny area at the bottom end of
Catherine Wheel Road.

Johnsons
Island artists’ studios

Greaves
and Thomas. Makers of terrestrial and
celestial globes have a showroom here.

Justin Close

Part of the route of the road follows the
line of the dock railway track

Marcus Court. Flats. Built between the sites
of Dock Warehouses 4 and 5. Vaults and horizontal arches designed by Brunel lie
underneath and can be seen.

Nero Court. Flats. Behind them lie vaults
and horizontal arches designed by Brunel. Bricked up vault arches can be seen.

Promenade in front of Numa Court which cuts
off the original western end and loading bay of the dock.

Lateward Road

St Paul’s recreation ground. This was laid
out on building land, rescued, as open space in 1883.

Jubilee Obelisk. Installed in 1889 in commemoration
of Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1887

London
Road

In November 1642 the area around Brent
Bridge and London Road was the site of a battle of the Civil War. In the early morning a Royalist
army under Prince Rupert charged along London Road hoping to enter into the
town. They encountered strong resistance from Parliamentary troops stationed in
the road but the skirmish reached the bridge which was barricaded with
cannon.The bridge was eventually taken
by the Royalists and heavy fighting continued into the late afternoon through
the town and eventually the Parliamentary army retreated towards London. The
Royalists then sacked the town and as a result a relief fund was set up.Very many were killed and wounded solders
were treated in local houses and churches.

Brentford
Town Station. Opened in 1860 by the Great Western Railway. The entrance was on
the north side of London Road west of the junction with Commerce Way.It was used by passengers from Southall from
1860 to1915 but originally using just one platform.From 1915 to 1920 there was a temporary
closure and the Southall service ceased. In 1924, the down platform was
still in good order and had at least one lamp and a 'Way Out' sign. It Closed in 1942 and in 1957 everything was
demolished leaving just the derelict remnants of the signal box and grass-grown
platforms, and the abandoned down side exit ramp.The down platform had been disused after the
introduction of rail motor services. The booking office was at the east end of
the platform.The station was said to be‘Impractical
for ladies’

Signal
box. Opened in the spring of 1905, and remained in use until 31st January 1954.

Ring Main – the road outside the station is
directly above the London water ring main, 45 metres below ground.

29
George and Dragon. Pub

Angel.
This from before the 1550s. Rebuilt 1935; renamed "Park Tavern" 1989;
demolished 2002 now flats

O'Brians.
This was once the Northumberland Arms or the Duke of Northumberland or
Mary O'Riordens

Royal Mail. Depot

Syon Park House., This was the site of the
'Syon Park Academy' where the poet Shelley was educated before going to Eton. It
is the site of the A Royal Mail depot. Demolished in 1953. This may be where Pocahontas
lived in 1616

Brent Lea Recreation Ground. This is next to
Syon Park, and a length of old park wall lies along the boundary.

Market
Place

The
Market had a Charter from 1306. It moved to this site here in 1560 among rowdy
scenes. The Market house was abolished in 1933. It closed and was moved to Kew
Bridge.

Three
Pigeons – this stood on the west
corner of the Market Place with the back running down to the Brent. The pub was
called The Pigeons or The Doves and had been here since the 16th. It
was as run by John Lewin who had been in the same acting group as Shakespeare. It
closed in 1916.

The Weir or the White Horse. This stands near the Magistrates' Court and has a riverside garden with
views of the Brent backwater. Turner, the artist, spent four years as a boy
living here with his uncle who was a local butcher. The pub has been here since
at least 1633 but has been rebuilt. In the past it had an adjacent malthouse.All Clear Memorial Hall. This building, next
to 28, appears to have been the Electric Theatre opened 1910-1912.It
was later used by a film company, Nova Films. It became a Billiard Hall and
then Scout hall. By the 1930 it was in industrial use. Demolished

New Road

The New Inn. Pub

Bags of Potential Studio. This was the
Primitive Methodist church. Jubilee Chapel was founded in 1897 by Primitive
Methodists. It was replaced by the new Methodist church in Clifden Road in
1964.

Pump
Alley

Brentford Sewage Pumping Station. 19th century stables, offices and manager's house around
the Pumping Station of 1883 which was built in 1883 designed by F.W.Lacey. The chimney base remains and an inscribed stone records all the members of the Local Board with Layton
as Chairman.Double wooden gates. With a
weighbridge just inside. Nowell Parr added a destructor, gates etc in 1897.

Railway

Southall-Brentford
Line. From the London Road viaduct, the branch descended until it reached the
level of the dock.

Viaduct
after the station the line turned east and continued towards the docks on a
233yd viaduct. In 1859 this was "partly composed of brick arches and
partly of brick abutments".

Robin Grove

Robin Grove Recreation Ground

Somerset
Road

17 17th house with a Victorian top floor
and porch,

Station
Approach

Brentford Central
Station. Originally built in 1849 it now
lies between Syon Lane and Kew Bridge on South Western Trains. It was opened as
‘Brentford’ by the Windsor, Staines and South West Railway. In 1950 it was
renamed as ‘Brentford Central’ but the name since were changed back.In 1989 both platforms lost their canopies
and small shelters built. The footbridge was removed so that passengers had to
walk right round and the station house was drastically changed.

Goods
shed. Closed 1965

Station
Road

Goddards
Depositary

St
Paul's Road

St Paul's Church. An iron church was originally
provided by Ealing Rural-Decanal Association and a ragstone church was built in
a new site in 1867-8 by H. Francis. It was a chapel of ease of St. Lawrence's
in 1952 and then the principal church of the united parishes of Brentford from
1961.It is said that the famous Zofran
painting which used to be in St George's church is now here.

St.
Laurence with St Paul Primary School. Opened as a National School in 1873 for
primary, junior and infants,

Tallow Road

This goes up the centre of the lock area of
the canal and consists of a gated community of flats in 1990s ‘regeneration’
style.

The
Butts

The name reflects that this was common land used since at least the 16th for compulsory
archery. It was also the original site of the market place and where
Parliamentary troops were stationed in the Civil War. The area was enclosed and
sold for building in 1664 developed by William Parish, landlord of the Red Lion
Inn.Nell Gwynn is said to have lived here. It was also the
site for the hustings where the riots took place during Wilkes’ elections of
the 1760s when poll books were burnt and a man was killed.Lampposts.
These all date from 1997

6-8 St.Raphael's. a three-storeyed
18th-centuryhouse of yellow brick, much extended. Now a care home run by the
Poor Servants of the Mother of God. Frances Taylor
founded the order in 1872. In 1854 she had gone to the Crimea with Florence
Nightingale's and her desire to work for and with the poor, led her to found
the Congregation in 1872 as Mother Magdalen

10
St.Mary’s Convent.There seems to have
been a house here in 1764, it was rebuilt in 1792. By 1810 it was called
‘Egglesfield House’, and was a boarding school but later became used as a home.
In 1880 it was acquired by Frances Taylor and it is still owned by the Poor
Servants of the Mother of God. It has been extended by the building of the care
home in 1924; a new infirmary and chapel in the 1950s since replaced by a new
care home and a smaller chapel

7 This has a garden designer's
walled garden, which is divided into three rooms -- a terrace with a water
feature, behind it a pergola and a box-edged lawn with deep borders, and past a
hedge and arch, is a secret garden with a pond.

15-17 Chatham House and Beaufort House .L-shaped houses, with a rural broad frontage comprising
with two front rooms with a dog-leg stair, with a kitchen behind.Door case with carved frieze and fanlight.

16-22
four 18th cottages.

21-
23 Cobden House and Linden House 18th

24-26 Marlborough House, built in 1690 in
brown brick.In 1892 Edward Clitherow,
leased the building as a hospital.The
Brentford Dispensary, which had opened in 1818, moved here and it was renamed
the Brentford Dispensary, Cottage Hospital and Nurses' Home. The freehold was bought
in 1902, but a larger hospital was needed and the Dispensary moved to a new
site in Boston Manor Road.

40 -46 18th

Canal
Boatmen's Institute by Nowell Parr, this was opened in 1904 by the London City
Mission. It is in Arts and Crafts style
and had two schoolrooms with living accommodation above. On the first floor is
a central wooden window like one in Ipswich. On the gable is '1904' and
"BOATMAN’S INSTITUTE. Beneath the ground floor windows are plaques to
benefactors including the wife of the architect. Inside are folding wooden
screens separating the schoolrooms. The institute provided basic education to
the children of boatmen and maternity provision for boatmen's wives. It backs on to the
canal and was built on canal company land
on the site of a watermill. It is now housing.

Caxton
Mews and arch. This was built in the 1970s on the area of the yard of the
Castle Inn.

The
Ham

This
is an old piece of riverside common and a field-name meaning piece of
flat land beside the river

Fire Station. North of the railway was the
Engine House of a volunteer fire service by 1853

Railway viaduct – a stretch of railway
viaduct remains from the Brentford Dock Line, 1859. Isolated the arches under
it are in various light industrial use.

Albion Timber Merchants.The brick building was used to repair
traditional wooden craft until the early 1980s.

Ham Weight Dock - The small dock only just
visible from Augustus Close, was Ham Weight-dock; here craft were weighed to
assess cargo capacity

St. Lawrence School. This now has Teddies
Nursery in it. It was originally a charity school for boys, built in 1815 on
land given by Colonel Clitherow. It became the National School for New Brentford
in 1835

Troy Town

A deprived area between Ealing Road and Half
Acre

Town
Meadow Road

Town
Meadow was on which the dock was built. Osier growing and residents had common
and Lammas rights.

Corporation
Yard,

Soap
Works

Upper
Butts

1 a five-bay front
with segment-headed windows. Staircase with simple turned balusters continuing
to attic level; good panelling throughout. In the garden a summer house with
three Gothic windows brought from a shop in Brentford High Street.

The
Cedars.
marks the limit of the c18 development.

Windmill
Road

New Grove
Mansions. 18th

24 Garrett
House

York
Road

Congregational
Chapel. 1870 now housing.

Sources

BHSProject. Web site

Brentford and Chiswick Local History
Society. Web site

Brentford School for Girls. Web site

Brentford TW8. Web site

Brentford Walk B

Brewery History Society. Web site

British History. Middlesex,
Brentford. On line

Canal walks. Leaflet.

CAMRA, Real Beer in London,

Clunn. The Face of London

Connor. Forgotten Stations of London

Cinema Treasures. Web site.

Dodds, London Then

Field. London Place Names,

GLIAS. Brentford Walk leaflets

Greater London council home sweet
home

Greater London Council. Thames
Guidelines

Ian Nairn, Nairn’s London

Kingston Zodiac

London Borough of Hounslow. Web site

London Drinker

London Gardens Online. Web site

London Railway Record

London Encyclopaedia

Lost Hospitals of London. Web site

Marshall. History of the Great West
Road

Middlesex County Council. History of
Middlesex

Pevsner and Cherry.North West London

Pub History. Web site

Riverbank Way. Web site

Roll of Honour. Web site.

Smith. Civil Engineering Heritage. London
and the Thames Valley

Stevenson. Middlesex

Thames Basin Archaeological Group
Report

Walford. Village London

First of all I would like to pay tribute to
the many, many Brentford historians who work on this interesting area and say
that this page is in no way an attempt to compete with them – or begin to meet
their standards.For me it is the next
page in a series – and I have to do something, although I can’t match up to
them.

Second – this is a chance to acknowledge the
work of Diana Willment, who died just two months ago – and to say how much I,
and others, appreciated her work.I did
not think that a chance meeting last year at Kew Bridge Engines would be the
last time I ever saw her – but – thanks – Diana.